The Puritan (song)
| "The Puritan" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Blur | ||||
| A-side | "Under the Westway" | |||
| Released | 2 July 2012 | |||
| Genre | Post-Britpop, electronic rock | |||
| Length | 3:25 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Blur | |||
| Producer(s) | Blur | |||
| Blur singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "The Puritan" (live) on YouTube | ||||
"The Puritan" is a single by English rock band Blur, released on 2 July 2012. After being played by Damon Albarn at a poetry festival,[1] speculation rose as to "The Puritan"'s release. It is the band's first single since 2010's "Fool's Day". On 25 June 2012, it was announced on the band's Twitter account that the song, accompanied with the band's other new single "Under the Westway", would be performed live by the band via a live stream from a secret location (which proved to be the rooftop of their 13 studio in West London).[2]
The performances of "The Puritan" and "Under the Westway" on 2 July 2012 were the first live performances of new material by the whole band since 30 January 1999, when all four members played a fan-club only concert at the Arts Depot in London, at the start of their 13 tour.
Reception
Matthew Horton of the NME wrote that the song was "initially jarring, with beats pulled straight out of a cracker, it soon unveils a "happy sad" – just one of many meta-lyrics – melody and the kind of ludicrous clowning bounce that Blur have always managed alongside the more world-weary stuff."[3] Horton also stated that the song "pulls together the greatest titbits from the Blur catalogue, and finds room for traces of Gorillaz and all the other malarkey Damon Albarn's turned his magpie mind to. So it's bumped along by the kind of plastic electronic parp you could snap up on Freecycle, echoing Gorillaz' "Doncamatic" in its cheap-as-chips bop, and wigging out to a 'chorus' of frenzied fuzz-bass that'd slot nicely into the more annoying nooks of Think Tank."[3]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Blur.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Under the Westway" | 4:16 |
| 2. | "The Puritan" | 3:25 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Under the Westway" | 4:16 |
| 2. | "Under the Westway" (acoustic) | 4:04 |
| 3. | "Under the Westway" (instrumental) | 4:17 |
| 4. | "The Puritan" | 3:25 |
| 5. | "The Puritan" (instrumental) | 3:26 |
| Total length: | 19:26 | |
Personnel
- Damon Albarn – lead vocals, synthesizers, acoustic guitar
- Graham Coxon – electric guitar, backing vocals
- Alex James – bass guitar
- Dave Rowntree – drums
Charts
| Chart (2012) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[4] | 165 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[5] | 67 |
References
- ^ "Blur releasing two new songs in July". Musicrooms.net. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ PA (25 June 2012). "Blur to play live on Twitter - News - Music". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ a b Horton, Matthew (3 July 2012). "NME Track Reviews - Blur, 'The Puritan'". New Musical Express. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ^ "Blur – The Puritan" (in French). Le classement de singles. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Blur". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 20 January 2020.